I Like Singing, But It's Certainly Not

We Do All, Myself Included, We Tend To Hold Ourselves To Pretty Low Standards. But When It Comes To Judging Public Figures Or Politicians Or People We've Never Met, We Tend To Hold People To Very High Standards, And, If We Held Ourselves To Those Standards, We'd Always Fall Short.

I Like To Quote Homer Simpson: 'i'm Like A Chocoholic Except For Alcohol.' I Come From A Long Line Of Alcoholics. It's Funny Because When I First Started Making Records, I Was At The Tail End Of A Period Of Sobriety, So I Somehow Got This Reputation As Captain Sober.

In 1992 I Was Doing One Of My First Ever Tours And I Was In Heathrow Airport And I Saw These Middle-aged Musicians Who Had Clearly Been On Tour For Decades, And They All Looked Haggard And Unhappy And Unhealthy. I Vowed To Myself That I Would Never Be That Person. Flash Forward 20 Years And I Found Myself In Heathrow Looking Haggard And Unhappy And Unhealthy. I Decided I Would Rather Spend My Time Staying Home Working On Music And Making Dinner With Friends, Instead Of Spending Six Months In A Hotel In A State Of Depressing Suspended Adolescence.

Look Not Too Long In The Face Of The Fire, O Man! Never Dream With Thy Hand On The Helm! Turn Not Thy Back To The Compass; Accept The First Hint Of The Hitching Tiller; Believe Not The Artificial Fire, When Its Redness Makes All Things Look Ghastly. To-morrow, In The Natural Sun, The Skies Will Be Bright; Those Who Glared Like Devils In The Forking Flames, The Morn Will Show In Far Other, At Least Gentler, Relief; The Glorious, Golden, Glad Sun, The Only True Lamp—all Others But Liars!

I Would Drink And Drink And Then At 3 O'clock In The Morning Take Anything That Was Put In Front Of Me. And I'd Sometimes Be Disappointed When Conventional Things Were Put In Front Of Me. Like, I'd Do A Line Of Something And Be Disappointed To Find It Was Just Cocaine.